Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu looks to be going down the same route positionally and stylistically speaking as Andrea Pirlo and Luka Modric.
This is the view in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who compare the 28-year-old’s move back on the pitch from trequartista to regista to the two legends.
Calhanoglu arrived in Serie A having played almost exclusively as either an attacking midfielder or a winger in the Bundesliga.
It was the Turk’s former AC Milan coach Gennaro Gattuso who first saw the potential to use his qualities in a deeper midfield role.
It’s been at Inter, however, that the 28-year-old has started to be used as more of a mezzala.
This season, with Marcelo Brozovic out with an extended injury, Calhanoglu has been moved even further back into the Croat’s customary deep-lying role.
The Turk has in fact thrived in the position, and this could well become much more how he plays in the future, for both his club and his national team which he captains.
For the Gazzetta, this has seen Calhanoglu join the ranks of Pirlo and Modric as a player who began playing high up the pitch, but then gradually showed that he can use his qualities just as well if not better in a regista role.
